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www.lifebookuk.com +44 (0)20 3291 1169 LifeBook Ltd, LifeBook House, Home Farm, Hurtmore, Godalming, Surrey, GU8 6AD UK Registered in England No. 7455022 S/C/A‑UK 1
5th September 2012
LifeBook receives £1.6 million of funding from Octopus Investments LifeBook accelerates international expansion plans with significant funding from Octopus
LifeBook, the company that offers the unique experience of telling your story in an autobiography, today announces that it has received £1.6 million of funding from Octopus Investments (“Octopus”). Octopus’ funding will enable LifeBook to quickly scale its business in the UK as it seeks to build its brand and ultimately deliver the LifeBook experience internationally.
Founded in 2010, LifeBook has spent the last two years developing its business during an extensive and successful proof‑of‑concept stage. LifeBook encourages the author of the book to share their memories and life experiences with family and friends, while also providing an enjoyable and stimulating experience for them. The LifeBook can be commissioned by the author or by a friend or family member as a gift.
Using a team of dedicated and trained personal interviewers, LifeBook undertakes a series of weekly interviews with the author. A professional ghostwriter then develops the recordings into the author’s story and together they edit it to create a final version for private publishing for family and friends. Each customer who commissions the book receives ten hardback copies of the autobiography, with up to 150 pages including colour photographs.
With Octopus’ support, the business is now poised to rapidly expand. LifeBook has already had international success in regions with large expat communities. Early customers have enjoyed using LifeBook as a way of strengthening relationships with older relatives who may be living back home or in different countries. The LifeBook experience enables the customer to receive instalments of the LifeBook as the author and interviewer progress the story, providing new and often exciting talking points, as well as creating a platform for renewed engagement with family and friends.
The company aims to go beyond a product offering and to deliver a professionally managed experience. Authors have described LifeBook as a therapeutic process and the experience often has the added benefit of helping them to enhance their cognitive awareness. With Octopus’ support, LifeBook can pursue its ambitious growth plans and deliver its unique experience to a large and growing market of over 50s both in the UK and abroad.
www.lifebookuk.com +44 (0)20 3291 1169 LifeBook Ltd, LifeBook House, Home Farm, Hurtmore, Godalming, Surrey, GU8 6AD UK Registered in England No. 7455022 S/C/A‑UK 2
Commenting on Octopus’ investment, Roy Moëd, Chairman of LifeBook, said: “We have already invested a significant amount of energy in developing the LifeBook concept and we’re excited to have gained the support of such a successful ventures team. We’re incredibly passionate about our proposition – we believe that the act of recalling and telling of a life story is of the utmost value. LifeBook not only gives people a chance to share their story with their family and friends but it can also be therapeutic for the author. It enables a loved one to enjoy the project while also stimulating their mind throughout the process. It has been rewarding to share that enthusiasm with the ventures team at Octopus and we look forward to growing the business with their support.”
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For further information about LifeBook or to enquire about commissioning a LifeBook, please contactus at [email protected] or visit our website www.lifebookuk.com
About LifeBook
Founded in the UK in 2010, LifeBook is a company dedicated to giving people the experience of sharing their stories in an autobiography that they can create for their family and friends. Providing a professionally managed service, the LifeBook experience includes 27 interviews, reviews and edit meetings over a six‑month period with a dedicated personal interviewer. The recordings created through these meetings are then written up by an experienced ghostwriter with the author remaining in control of the content. The result is ten beautifully presented hardback books (including up to 24 pages of colour photographs), published as a family legacy.
LifeBook has delivered autobiographies to loved ones all over the world. However, LifeBook is about more than just a precious autobiography and family legacy. It is enjoyable, fun, therapeutic and stimulating for the authors and their families and friends. It promotes companionship and renewed interaction with family and friends, and the positive health benefits these can bring.
About Octopus Investments
Octopus Investments, founded in 2000, is a leading investment specialist. We offer innovative core and satellite investment solutions to UK investors, and a wide range of funding options for exceptional companies.
The ventures team at Octopus focuses on identifying early‑stage growth businesses which can scale explosively to create, transform or dominate an industry. We are straight talking human investors that back talented people rather than specific sectors. Our investment philosophy is to support exceptional entrepreneurial teams. We are focused on the UK and can invest from £250,000 to £5 million.
The work of our ventures team is supported by access to the Octopus Venture Partners, a network of approximately 100 outstanding business leaders, entrepreneurs and private investors providing an invaluable wealth of expertise and resource for our portfolio companies, as well as investing on a deal‑by‑deal basis alongside Octopus venture funds. This blend of knowledge and skill has allowed us to help many great companies across several sectors thrive in recent years including LoveFiLM; Zoopla; Graze.com; SwiftKey; and Secret Escapes.
For more information, please visit our website www.octopusinvestments.com
